title: Full Metal Jacket function popUp(URL,NAME) { amznwin=window.open(URL,NAME,'location=yes,scrollbars=yes,status=yes,toolbar=yes,resizable=yes,width=380,height=450,screenX=10,screenY=10,top=10,left=10'); amznwin.focus();} document.open(); document.write(""); document.close(); studio: Warner Home Video MPAA rating: R starring: Matthew Modine, Adam Baldwin, Vincent D’Onofrio, Lee Ermey release year: 1987 film rating: Three and a half stars reviewed by: Abbie Bernstein The title of ‘Full Metal Jacket’ refers to bullets, of which there are many. Directed by Stanley Kubrick from a screenplay by Kubrick, ‘Dispatches’ author Michael Herr and Gustav Hasford, who wrote the novel ‘The Short-Timers’ on which the film is based, ‘Full Metal Jacket’ is one of the better films made about the experience of the average U.S. soldier in Vietnam. Not as metaphysical as ‘Apocalypse Now’ or ‘Platoon,’ ‘Jacket’ is also more down to earth -- even if, like its predecessors, it occasionally employs its main character as narrator.

title: Soldier Of Orange function popUp(URL,NAME) { amznwin=window.open(URL,NAME,'location=yes,scrollbars=yes,status=yes,toolbar=yes,resizable=yes,width=380,height=450,screenX=10,screenY=10,top=10,left=10'); amznwin.focus();} document.open(); document.write(""); document.close(); <br> studio: Anchor Bay Entertainment MPAA rating: R starring: Rutger Hauer, Jeroen Krabbé, Susan Penhaligon, Lex van Delden, Derek de Lint, Huib Rooymans, Eddy Habbema, Dolf de Vries, Edward Fox release year: 1977 film rating: Four-and-a-half stars reviewed by: Bill Warren This is one of the best films ever made about World War II, and the chances are good you've never heard of it. It was the most expensive movie ever made in Holland, a genuine epic on a Hollywood-like scale. It may be the best depiction by anyone, anywhere, about the uncomfortably close relationship between the Nazis and the people in the countries they occupied. This movie is still controversial in Holland for its unflinching honesty in showing that collaborators weren't always greedy opportunists, but usually just ordinary people whose motivations varied widely.

title: U-571 function popUp(URL,NAME) { amznwin=window.open(URL,NAME,'location=yes,scrollbars=yes,status=yes,toolbar=yes,resizable=yes,width=380,height=450,screenX=10,screenY=10,top=10,left=10'); amznwin.focus();} document.open(); document.write(""); document.close(); <br> studio: Universal/MCA Home Video MPAA rating: R starring: Matthew McConaughey, Bill Paxton, Harvey Keitel, Jon Bon Jovi release year: 2000 film rating: Three Stars reviewed by: Abbie Bernstein ‘U-571’ not only takes place during WWII but, color, sound and a few profanities in the dialogue aside, feels almost as though it could have been made during the era in which it is set. It is made with great physical craftsmanship, but the script by director Jonathan Mostow (who also wrote the original story) and Sam Montgomery and David Ayer is insistently schematic. For all of the dramatic possibilities in this tale of a submarine crew trapped on the wrong boat, the characters are drawn so schematically and follow such clear, traditional arcs that we almost might as well be watching a storyboard.

title: The Great Santini function popUp(URL,NAME) { amznwin=window.open(URL,NAME,'location=yes,scrollbars=yes,status=yes,toolbar=yes,resizable=yes,width=380,height=450,screenX=10,screenY=10,top=10,left=10'); amznwin.focus();} document.open(); document.write(""); document.close(); studio: Warner Home Video starring: Robert Duvall, Blythe Danner, Michael O’Keefe, Stan Shaw release year: 1979 film rating: Three-and-a-Half Stars reviewed by: Abbie Bernstein ‘The Great Santini’ has been justly praised for its powerful performances - Robert Duvall and Michael O’Keefe both got Oscar nominations for their work here. It’s strong dramatically as well, beginning immediately in Chapter 1 with a spectacular albeit non-lethal aerial dogfight between U.S. Marine and Navy pilots over Spain. As a DVD, however, it leaves much to be desired. Not only does it lack any supplemental material and come only in the pan-and-scan full-screen aspect ratio, the ‘Santini’ DVD adds insult to injury by using a print with color quality that makes it look as though the film was made in 1959 instead of 1979. Worse still, the mono audio track has a variety of noticeable defects.

title: Grand Illusion function popUp(URL,NAME) { amznwin=window.open(URL,NAME,'location=yes,scrollbars=yes,status=yes,toolbar=yes,resizable=yes,width=380,height=450,screenX=10,screenY=10,top=10,left=10'); amznwin.focus();} document.open(); document.write(""); document.close(); studio: The Criterion Collection MPAA rating: NR starring: Jean Gabin, Marcel Dalio, Pierre Fresnay, Erich von Stroheim, Dita Parlo, Julien Carette, Jean Dasté, Gaston Modot release year: 1937 film rating: Five stars reviewed by: Bill Warren Although the career of Jean Renoir was rocky and uneven, he wrote and directed a handful of the greatest movies of all time, 'Grand Illusion' being one of them. It is, in fact, occasionally listed as the best movie ever made, although most commentators do prefer Renoir's 'Rules of the Game,' made two years later.